Rookie Day
by EchoEternal
Summary: Post-Adventures, Pre-Assault. Krystal, a new teammate, struggles during her early days as a member of Star Fox. Working her way through various training exercises, she feels overloaded, but has help from her new teammate.


Author: This is just a one-shot on Krystal when she joined Star Fox. It's probably been written to death, but I wanted to try it out myself. Either way, enjoy!

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><p>The blaring sound of an alarm went off and the blue vixen, Krystal, rocketed from her bed in a panic. She grabbed her staff and smashed the clock that emanated the buzz before she settled down.<p>

She blinked and uttered, "W…What?" Looking around the room, Krystal let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Bedroom. Ship. Star Fox, right."

A little while ago, Krystal had asked to join the Star Fox team, impressed with their rescue work of the Dinosaur Planet, Sauria. The leader, Fox, agreed, but requested that she began training as soon as possible.

"Today…" Krystal yawned, "…Must be the day."

Thoughts swam into her mind, but Krystal discovered they were not her own. Holding her head, she read the thoughts:

_She should be awake by now. I guess I'll knock and see. What should I do if she isn't? Do I go in or do I just hammer on the door until…?_

Grabbing her new uniform, Krystal scrambled into it and barely zipped it up before the knock sounded at her door.

"Hi Fox," she called, tossing the team jacket on.

He let a light gasp. "How did you know it was me?"

"We bonded, remember?"

"Uh…" _Wait, does she mean—?_

Krystal giggled. "From our time on Sauria, remember? It wasn't too long ago."

"O-Oh! Right, of course."

She tapped a switch that unlocked the door and it swept open. Fox McCloud stood in the doorway and smiled.

"Good morning, Krystal," Fox warmly greeted.

"Morning?" Krystal protested and yawned again. "I don't even remember sleeping."

Fox laughed. "I told you to get to bed early. You begin training today."

"Right. Right, I knew that." Krystal stretched her arms over her head and held them up for a moment. "So, what will I be learning today?" She inquired as she released her arms, which fell back to her sides.

"You'll be working with me on some combat training first," Fox instructed.

Krystal nodded and held back another yawn. "Sounds straightforward."

Fox raised an eyebrow at her comment. "We'll see about that. Next, Peppy will quiz you a bit on what you can memorize about the planets, but you have to promise not to use your telepathic powers."

"At all? But that makes it easy," Krystal complained.

"Sometimes, you'll need to have immediate knowledge on your surroundings," Fox clarified. "In the time it took you to read someone's mind or the environment around you, a lot can happen. You should be prepared for immediate actions whenever necessary."

"Fair enough," Krystal relented and brushed her tail a bit. "Anything else?"

"Flight training with Falco," Fox answered.

"Ah, so I'll be trying out an Arwing, today?" Krystal excitedly asked.

Fox scratched the side of his face. "Not quite. Falco wants you to practice simulations before taking the real machine out for a spin."

"I'm sure I could handle it," Krystal grumbled, but Fox shook his head.

"Flying a ship is a little different from flying a dinosaur," he explained. "You have more responsibility as the pilot, such as steering and knowing flight patterns." A little less seriously, he added, "And there are a lot of buttons to press."

Krystal smiled and nodded. "All right, I'll get on those then. When do I start?"

"Now," Fox responded and beckoned her to follow him. "This way."

She stepped out and they walked down the Great Fox, closer to the hull. Krystal watched the passing walls, feeling that the ship's interior could use some new design work, with bland gray and white colored walls. It grew darker as they descended, and Fox kept moving until they reached a larger door. He typed in a key code and the door shifted open, revealing a black room.

"Um, do I have to practice without being able to see targets?" Krystal nervously asked.

"Of course not," Fox laughed. She let out a sigh of relief, before he continued, "That's part of next week's training." Krystal stifled a groan and slowly followed Fox inside.

"ROB, we're here," Fox called out to his robotic operator. "Run Combat Training Session 001."

"Loading," sounded ROB 64's voice, which Krystal imagined came from a loudspeaker of sorts. Though she wasn't a complete novice to technology, she hadn't been as exposed to it as the Star Fox team was.

"Commencing Training Session," ROB's voice rang out again. With it, green wireframe lights lit up around the room. Krystal shut her eyes as the whole room began to glow and was enveloped in a white light.

After a moment, she opened them to find the space around her now resembled the city streets and buildings of Corneria City. The likeness was an almost perfect block corner, sans the sky, which had a wireframe pattern across it that resembled a net. She whirled around to find Fox watching her, with an amused expression plastered on his face.

Krystal crossed her arms. "What? This isn't what I was expecting."

"I gathered," Fox chuckled. He handed her a gray blaster. "There are targets around each of the buildings here," Fox instructed. "You can fire quick shots to break the green ones, but you'll have to charge the blaster for a bit to hit the blue ones. There are a few red targets around here as well, which you'll need to charge the blaster for a while to make your shot strong enough to break them."

"Um, a-all right," Krystal managed, and looked the blaster over. "To charge it, I—?"

"Hold this button here," Fox pointed to the side of the weapon. "And just pull the trigger when you're ready to shoot. When the power glows green, it's ready to fire. If you charge it and the glow turns blue or red, it'll be stronger."

"Ah, ok then," Krystal nodded, pointed the blaster away from Fox, and touched the trigger gently. A green shot fired out and she jumped back with a cry.

"Careful; they're sensitive," Fox clarified. Krystal quietly nodded again. "All right, your mission is to blow apart fifteen targets without me tagging you out. I have a laser pointer," he took out a small device, pointed it at a building, and it emitted a thin red light. "If that light catches any part of you, the training ends."

"Any part of me? Doesn't that seem unfair?" Krystal protested. "You know what you're doing and I'm completely new at this."

Fox shook his head. "An enemy won't give a rookie the luxury of learning before firing. I'll give you a head start, but the second I see you, I'm giving it my all."

Krystal bit her lip, but readied her blaster. Her eyes surveyed the area, which had four buildings to check.

"Your time starts…" Fox waited a minute, and then snapped his fingers. "Now."

Without much time to plot the rest of her trail, Krystal stumbled a bit before she ran to the nearest building. Inside, a green holographic target waited for her. She aimed the blaster and pulled the trigger. The shot fired out quickly, nailed the bull's-eye, and shattered the target.

Her eyes darted around the room and the second she noticed stairs, Krystal raced up the flight to the next floor. There, a blue holographic target hovered before her. She held the blaster's charger, and watched as the light changed from green to blue. As she released the trigger, Krystal caught sight of a thin red light and ran after her fired shot. It hit the target while the red light flashed against the wall above the stairs. Krystal backed up and searched for a way out. When she failed to find one, she slid under a desk and ducked down.

Fox ran into the room and surveyed it carefully. Krystal sucked in her breath and waited as he walked slowly around and about. After a moment, she realized that he was in no hurry to leave. She lightly touched the top of the desk above her and slammed it down in front of her. Krystal heard Fox spin around on his heels, but didn't wait to see if he spotted her. The blue vixen rushed out of the room and back down the stairs.

Outside again, Krystal ran to the next building, and dashed inside. Another blue target awaited her. She charged the blaster again and waited for it to charge. As soon as it turned blue, she fired the shot, and it hit the target. Once Krystal found another set of stairs, she ran up, and jumped over a few missing steps on the way.

Up in the next room, two holographic targets waited for her: one green and the other red. Krystal took a quick shot to break the green target and aimed her charging blaster at the red one.

"Come on, hurry," Krystal murmured as the light changed from green to blue. She waited a bit longer until the glow turned red, and fired. The target shattered and Krystal smiled.

Abruptly, a buzzer when off, and Krystal jumped. She spun around on her heels and glanced down. A thin red light appeared on her chest. Krystal looked up to find Fox at the top of the stairs. He smirked and walked over as she let out a heavy sigh.

"You're dead," Fox told Krystal as he put the laser pointer away. "You managed to clear a third of the targets. Good effort, but you'll have to do better next time."

"That seems impossible," Krystal complained. "You'd know these exercises better than anyone else. How can I beat you at this?"

"You'll have to figure that out," Fox explained. "Real life will present these same challenges, where a more experienced opponent will know the environment better than you. Regardless, if you want to live, you'll need to beat that exact opponent."

Krystal slowly nodded as she handed the blaster back to Fox. The lights of the room around them faded into green wireframes and vanished after a few minutes.

"Peppy should be waiting for you in the operations room. Head over there for the next part of training."

"Ok," Krystal replied and made her way out of the darkened room. She felt her face grow warm and, once she was out of Fox's sight, her brows lowered. As she continued to make her way up the ship, Krystal sucked in another breath and slowly exhaled, in an attempt to relax her tensed body and mind.

"Hi there, Krystal!" shouted an exited voice, which caused the blue vixen to stop and back up a second. In an opened room, Slippy Toad waved a wrench to catch her attention.

"Hey Slippy,"Krystal waved back. "Sorry, I've got to continue training."

"Oh, ok," Slippy answered. "Good luck!" She nodded and walked off.

After she traversed the ship, Krystal arrived at the operations room. Inside, Peppy Hare stood by a computer and turned as she walked in.

"Welcome, Krystal," he greeted her with a small smile.

"Hello Peppy," Krystal returned. "How are you?"

"I'm doing fine. How was combat practice?"

"Ah, not so great," Krystal sighed. "I only managed to break a third of the targets."

Peppy scratched his chin. "A third, huh? Well, that's all right. Let's see how you do with your knowledge of the Lylat System."

"Um, well, I," Krystal fumbled. "I don't think I've got a large amount of knowledge on the system, to be honest."

"What? Don't you live in Lylat?" Peppy inquired.

Krystal frowned and sighed. "No, I actually come from…well, came from Cerinia, a planet from a different system." Peppy opened his mouth to investigate further, but Krystal quickly added, "It was destroyed before I went to Sauria, which is why I went there, actually."

"Oh," Peppy murmured. "My apologies and condolences, Krystal."

"Yeah, it's fine," she brushed off. "Anyway, let's see what I do know."

"All right," Peppy perked up, and was eager to change the subject. "Let's see what you do know. How many planets can you name in Lylat?"

"Uh…Sauria is in Lylat, right?"

They sat at the main computer for a few minutes, with Peppy quizzing Krystal on various Lylat statistics. He gave her some time to review facts, and let her read over information on the databases. However, three hours passed and she couldn't get everything completely straightened out. They tried going to basics to allow Krystal to retain the look of each planet.

"This planet here is…?"

"That…that's Corneria, right?"

"Yep," Peppy nodded, and clicked over to the next planet picture. "And how about this planet here?"

"The white one?" Krystal thought carefully. "Um, it's Fortuna, right?"

Peppy shook his head. "Ah, no. That one's Fichina."

"What? Really? I could have sworn it was Fortuna."

"It's all right," Peppy sighed. "Honestly, you were at a bit of a disadvantage today. Why not review the planets a little more and we'll pick up the rest of this tomorrow? Falco's bound to be impatient over waiting by now. Hurry over there and make sure you pet his ego to keep him happy, at least for today. We'll teach you how to get on his case later." Peppy chuckled at the last part.

"Right, ok," Krystal glumly answered, and stepped out of the room. She walked quickly to the hanger.

Slippy crossed paths with her, and started with a, "Hi Krystal!" Unfortunately for him, Krystal just threw on a quick smile and waved, but stayed in stride on a path toward Falco.

Eventually, she made her way to the hanger, where a blue pheasant was tapping his foot in impatience.

"Finally," Falco huffed. "You're late."

"Sorry. Peppy had to teach me about the whole Lylat System," Krystal explained.

Falco raised an eyebrow. "What, you're not from here?"

"No, I—"

"Bah, not now," Falco waved her off. "You've got practice now. We'll catch up on your life stories later."

Krystal sighed. "Right." She glanced over the four blue and white fighter ships locked in place at the end of the hanger. "Those are the Arwings, correct? Like what you and Fox used."

"Yep, those are the pride and joys of our team," Falco marveled. "Beautiful, huh?"

He turned when Krystal didn't answer right away, to which she nodded upon catching his eye. In her mind, "beautiful" wasn't quite the word of choice, but they were great looking ships.

"Anyway," Falco coughed. "We'll work on getting you in one of those as soon as possible. But first, we gotta see what you can do."

He guided her over to a small gray and black box with various wiring and controls around it. Nearby stood a small desk with a computer on top of it.

"This is our simulator," Falco introduced. "It's a little old fashioned compared to some other things around here, but it's up to date and should teach you what you need to know about flying an Arwing."

"Um, ok," Krystal studied it over, and attempted to stay impressed.

Falco walked up to it and opened a door. He directed Krystal inside, where there was a screen, a seat, and several more controls, blinking buttons, and other types of switches that Krystal was unfamiliar with.

"Have a seat in there and keep your hands at the ready," Falco instructed and gave Krystal a full explanation on how each bit of the simulator worked. "And remember, I'll be out here monitoring the show and making suggestion for what you can do. Got all that?"

"I-I think," Krystal stammered, almost afraid to touch any buttons.

Falco smirked and shut the door. "All right, I'll start it up. Buckle in, Krystal."

She did just that, and jumped up once the screen turned on. Krystal grabbed at the levers and steered, before she realized that the program hadn't loaded yet. After a minute, Falco called in to her and the screen now projected a space battleground. Krystal fumbled with the controls and worked her best on the ship, but seemed to collide with more obstacles than avoiding them. Falco attempted to guide her using various flight patterns, but she was struggled to keep up.

"No, you gotta do a Barrel Roll."

"Wait, is that the one where I make the ship flip and turn the other way? Or does it do the corkscrew? Oh, wait, is it the one where I go behind the enemy and—"

A buzzer sounded and Krystal covered her ears. Several more went off, each with a different sound, and they created an orchestra of loud, alarming noises. After a minute, the simulator went dark and the door opened. Krystal lifted her hands away from her ears and stared at Falco.

"What happened?" Krystal asked, bewildered.

"Uh, let's see," Falco mockingly thought for a moment. Then, he held out his hand and counted each problem with his feathers: "You took too long deciding on what tactic to use and got hit, you let go of the controls to the ship, managed to take more damage, hit an ally pilot, and finally, you crashed."

"Oh," Krystal murmured dejectedly. "Is that all?"

"Nah, that was just the last bit," Falco teased, and then sighed. "Look, you're gonna need to come back and practice these simulations a bit more before we toss you in the cockpit, all right?"

"Yeah, sure," Krystal mumbled. Falco patted her shoulder, but it didn't ease any of her self-loathing. She climbed out of the simulator and trudged out of the hanger. Unsure of where to go or what to do next, Krystal slowly made her way back to her room, but slumped down outside of it, unable to bother with entering. Someone bounded over to her, causing her to look up.

"Hey there, Krystal," Slippy cheerfully greeted.

"Hi Slippy," Krystal muttered.

He frowned and asked, "Hey now, what's wrong? You're not normally this down, right?"

"No, but I'm not normally awful at everything," Krystal admitted. "I tried going through each of these training exercises and I'm just awful at them. I think I might have made a mistake when I signed on for this."

"Aw, don't think that way," Slippy soothed. "This was your first time, right? It just takes practice. You have to keep trying!"

Krystal shook her head. "I can't even fly a simulation without crashing ten minutes in."

"Wow, you made it ten whole minutes on your first shot?" Slippy inquired with awe. "I couldn't even last three on my first attempt!"

"Yeah, but you got better," Krystal argued.

Slippy shook his head. "Not exactly. I can keep the ship flying now, but I'm still near hopeless in dogfights."

"Well, you can memorize more planets than me, I'm sure," Krystal heavily sighed. "I hardly know anything about this system."

"Nope, I usually use computers to help me find answers and diagnostics on each planet. Some of them are easier to guess, but I still confuse Fichina and Fortuna with one another." He paused and laughed before adding, "The weird part is that one of them is a snow planet and the other is a jungle planet. How can I possibly confuse those still?"

"It gets me too," Krystal confessed. "The names are really similar."

"Great, that makes me feel much better," Slippy laughed, and Krystal slowly smiled.

"Still," she carried on, "I didn't do well with combat training either. I only took out a third of the targets."

"You mean you knew how to use the blaster on your first attempt?" Slippy cried out, amazed. "I couldn't even get it to charge properly. And I helped design the ones we use!"

"Really?" Krystal questioned. "You couldn't have been that bad."

"Of course I could," Slippy explained. "Worse yet, I still am! A lot of the tech we use, from the Arwings to the blasters, I helped create. I'm a great mechanic and can make all sorts of things. But when it comes to putting those inventions into practice? Well, I'm my own worst test subject!"

Krystal laughed. "Ok, I suppose that explains it." She frowned after a bit though. "Still, Slippy, you're a brilliant mechanic. That's what you bring to this team. Peppy's smart, Falco's a great pilot, and Fox is strong, not to mention a terrific leader. You four work great together."

Slippy scratched his cap and head for a moment. "You're…um, a telepath, right?"

"Yes."

"I got it right? Great!" Slippy cheered. "That's where you'll come in handy. You can help alert us to danger before we could see it coming! Reading minds and environments is a super important skill!"

"But Fox doesn't want me using it," Krystal groaned. "It's what I already know I'm good at, but he won't—"

"That's it, though! You're already good at it," Slippy pointed out. "Fox doesn't want you to use your telepathy with training because he already knows that you can use it well enough when you need to. He wants you to add other skills so that you'll be able to use them in conjunction with your telepathy."

Krystal sat back and mulled it over. "If that's it, why didn't he just say that outright?"

"Well, he doesn't always speak his mind properly," Slippy explained. "In fact, you might be able to figure him out better than the rest of us. Heck, you might even come to know Fox better than he knows himself!"

She thought over the possibility and smiled. "Maybe. That could be fun. And it would be exciting to learn how to do everything, all these other skills."

"Exactly! So, what'd you say?" Slippy held out a hand. "Keep trying?"

Krystal sat quietly for a moment. She then grasped Slippy's hand. He pulled her up, but tripped and fell over backward himself.

"Slippy!" Krystal gasped. "Are you ok?"

"Ha! Yeah," Slippy laughed and picked himself back up. "See? We all still make mistakes. You just have to keep at it."

Krystal stifled a laugh and nodded. "Sure, Slippy, I'll do my best."

"Good!" He thought for a moment and then bounced a bit. "Why don't we look a few things over and I'll try to help you learn more? I'm not that great at things around here either, but I can help you get started. And then you'll be better than me in no time!"

"I don't know about that," Krystal wondered. "But having extra guidance would be pretty helpful."

"Well then, come on," Slippy tugged at her arm. "Let's see what I can teach you! And then maybe you can teach me some telepathy! Or Saurian languages. Or how to use your staff!"

Krystal laughed. While she realized she had a ways to go before she would be a full-fledged member of Star Fox, she finally felt more confident about her training. More importantly, she learned that she was becoming part of the team, and that was the real first step she needed.

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><p>Author: And done. Hooray, Krystal and Slippy are friends! Sort of. (More like study buddies, but it'll grow over time.)<p>

Originally, I was going to make a story about Slippy trying to better himself as a member of Star Fox, but it really felt like a better fit for someone newer than him, which went to Krystal. Lol oops. After all, she was far from the best in Star Fox: Assault multiplayer (more like terribad awful tier), so I figured that she was still working her way up on the team during the Aparoid Invasion. (Because that's the innocent way of saying the devs didn't do a good enough job of balancing her with the rest of the pilots. Derp.)

Still though, it was fun to practice writing the Star Fox team and developing them at what they do. And I liked having the little friendship development at the end for Slippy and Krystal. The two of them seem like they would make for good friends, but the games never really got the chance to explore that avenue. Too much canon Fox/Krystal shipping and romance fluff, which is cute, but didn't give Krystal enough time to integrate with the rest of the cast. I'd imagine that she would probably be annoyed at Falco, but develop a sibling relationship with him, respect and follow Peppy's advice, who would in turn comfort her over her loses (hey, he probably did it for Fox, so who better?), and establish a solid friendship with Slippy. Instead, we got Command and none of that stuff really happened. Double oops.

Oh well, fanfiction helps fill in these gaps! Anyway, worth a shot, I tried, blah-blah. Thanks for reading!


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